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CU-Boulder 4/20 expenses for 2013 fell by nearly $17,000

June 27, 2013

The University of Colorado Boulder reduced the cost of curtailing the 4/20 event by nearly $17,000 in 2013 compared with costs incurred in 2012. CU-Boulder spent $107,794 to close the campus to non-affiliates this year, and $124,561 to close the campus on April 20, 2012.

The CU-Boulder administration conducted both closures due to the disruptions of research, teaching and basic university business resulting from the previous unsanctioned gatherings related to 4/20, which grew to around 12,000 participants in the Norlin Quad in 2011 and presented numerous safety, emergency response and crowd management challenges.

“This unorganized gathering disrupted the basic business of the campus and, as the violence in Denver this year demonstrated, it also has all the elements to become a public safety liability,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “For these reasons, we remain determined to permanently end the 4/20 gathering on the CU-Boulder campus.”

On the matter of the costs to the campus of ending the 4/20 gathering, DiStefano summed up the university’s position in clear terms.

“While this is not money we are eager to spend, we have to ask ourselves what the costs are to us for having our work disrupted or having a student or bystander injured because we allowed the gathering on the campus,” he said.

Funding for both campus closures came entirely from campus insurance premium rebates resulting from reductions in liability and hazard claims. The expense will not impact tuition or utilize taxpayer dollars.

Quotes

“This unorganized gathering disrupted the basic business of the campus and, as the violence in Denver this year demonstrated, it also has all the elements to become a public safety liability,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “For these reasons, we remain determined to permanently end the 4/20 gathering on the CU-Boulder campus.”